Tag Archives: Record List

I just got done updating the USAWA Record List and the Century Club. And to my excitement we have a new USAWA Century Club member, and that is BARRY PENSYL. The Century Club is for an inclusive group of All Rounders who hold over 100 USAWA records. It’s not easy to exceed 100 records in our organization, and often takes many years. Barry has been working towards this for a long, long time. His first USAWA record was set in 1990 at the Nationals in Akron! So this has been a 27 year project for Barry! Big congrats Barry from myself and the rest of the USAWA.

Other than that, there were not any really big changes in the CENTURY CLUB. Our Prez Denny still holds the big lead over the rest of the field in the Mens Club, with a total of 575 USAWA Records. RJ still holds the top Women’s spot in the Womens Century Club and is closing in on 300 USAWA Records. In the Men’s Club all the top ten members either stayed the same or increased their record count. In the Womens Club all four members stayed the same or increased their count. The Men’s Century Club now stands at 25 members with the addition of Barry. The biggest record “increasers” since last count were: RJ (+17), Denny (+15), LaVerne (+11), and myself (+19). Not much changed in the overall order – the women’s Club stayed the same and only two changes happened in the Mens Club. LaVerne moved past THE LEGEND Howard Prechtel to 13th place, and ET moved up a place to 22nd. One thing had me really concerned when updating this list, and that is that I found a “record error” with Dave Glasgow, who’s barely holding in the Century Club with an even 100 records. Apparently I had made a previous mistake in the Record List by attributing a record to Dave, when it should have went to his Uncle Kenny! So I had to made the correction which would have meant Dave had not officially reached the Century Club – but to my good luck I got to add a record for Dave when I added the Strict Pinch Grip to the Record List so he’s still in with his count of 100. But PLEASE DAVE set a few more so you will no longer be on the “cut line”!

I’ve always been pretty good at predicting who the next Century Club member will be. I “nailed it’ with Barry, and with Eric and Randy before as well. Now who do I predict it will be now? My bet is on Dan Wagman! Dan is standing at 90 Records and it wouldn’t take him much work to get 10 more. But that depends on Dan not going “off the grid” in the near future, which with Dan you never know! So I’m going to hedge my bet and throw out another name for a future Century Club member. Abe Smith is currently standing at 91 USAWA Records, and has shown interest in lifting this spring in the USAWA. His odds are very good that he will make the Club as well.

LaVerne Myers lifting 200 pounds in the Bear Hug at the 2015 USAWA Grip Championships to establish himself another USAWA record!

It’s always BIG NEWS when a USAWA lifter joins the Century Club. This is not for lifters who are over 100 years old – but for lifters who have over 100 USAWA records. It has been awhile since I have gave an update on this, but with the new addition of LaVerne Myers to the club it is time to give the updated counts. LaVerne has been lifting in the USAWA for a number of years now and has been very active this past year. He attended such prestigious competitions such as the Presidential Cup and the Gold Cup in England this year. He won the USAWA Grip Championships in February against a very stacked field of lifters. Plus LaVerne has really earned his records by just getting a few in each comp – not “cherry picking” 20 plus records in a record day. On the last Century Club report legendary USAWA lifter John Vernacchio dropped off the listing leaving the Club at 24 members. With the addition of LaVerne it is now back to 25 members.

Denny Habecker still leads the Men’s listing with 520 records – distancing himself from Art Montini. At one time a few years ago these two were “nip and tuck” in their record counts. Denny is the only USAWA lifter who has ever held over 500 USAWA records. Ruth Jackson is moving up the list in the Women’s listing, and I expect her to soon pass Noi (who has held the number one spot forever).

There are several USAWA lifters who are on the fringe of making the Century Club. Our current USAWA champ Randy Smith is within 10 of the list (and he has most ALL of his USAWA records from National Championships!!!!!). Our current women’s National Champ Susan Sees is very close as well. Plus it won’t be long before Joe Jr. and Joe Sr. Ciavattone join the club – they could be there in a couple of meets!

Thanks to a suggestion by Tim Songster – the CENTURY CLUB will now be part of the Record List Page. This will allow it to readily available for viewing (and not buried under many blogs) which will give lifters added motivation to compete in the USAWA!

As some of you may have noticed, the USAWA Record List is now available on the USAWA website. It is placed under the top heading section “record list”. I will try to keep an updated version of the record list uploaded. The record list is very large PDF of the excel file. It may take a while for some systems to download it. There are now over 10,000 records in the USAWA Record List.

It has also been awhile since I have updated the Century Club, a listing that includes all lifters that have over 100 USAWA Records. It’s been over a year since I have published this update – but since there has been no real changes in it, there has not been much reason to do so. The “top ten” is exactly the same order, and no one new has been added. The BIG NEWS of the list is that Denny Habecker has become the FIRST USAWA lifter to top 500 records! That’s a big number, and has given Denny a huge lead over Art Montini. The biggest placing changer in the Mens Club has been Dean Ross, who has moved up two places to number 11. Ruth Jackson is closing in on Noi – and I predict will pass her within the next couple of years. The sad news is USAWA legend John Vernacchio has dropped out of the Century Club, leaving the total number at 24.

Overall Women's BEST LIFTER Susan Sees set the most records at the 2012 USAWA National Champinships, with a total of 18 new records.

I have finally found time to look over the records that fell at the 2012 USAWA National Championships. I was quite surprised to see that a total of 83 records were set! That is much more than I would have guessed, but then again, there was alot of exceptional lifting going on. Of these 83 records, 26 were new NATIONAL RECORDS. National records are records that are set only in competition events at the National Championships, and represent the highest amount of weight ever set in each weight class. Age groupings are not recorded, but instead just the overall BEST RECORD LIFT in each weight class. As I’ve said previously in a Daily News Story, setting records at the National Championships is not like setting a record at a record day or small meet. The officiating is TOP NOTCH (and always 3 officials are used) and the meet’s pressure makes setting records at Nationals harder – that is why this National Record List was developed.

The women’s OVERALL BEST LIFTER Susan Sees set the most records. Susan set a total of 18 records, 6 of which were National Records. The top 5 records setters were:

As promised the other day, I am going to announce the GRAND BEST LIFTERS (for both men and women) in the 25 year history of the USAWA. This award is going to the lifters that currently have the most National Records (records set only at the National Championships). To do this requires a lifter not only to be a GREAT LIFTER, but also has shown the committment to have competed in several championships, thus showing longterm support to the USAWA. Just winning the OVERALL BEST LIFTER at a couple of championships won’t be enough. Now the drumroll please…..

MEN’S GRAND BEST LIFTER – FRANK CIAVATTONE

WOMEN’S GRAND BEST LIFTER – NOI PHUMCHAONA

Frank has a total of 45 Nationals Records and Noi has a total of 53 National Records. Those are amazing accomplishments!! Both of these lifters are well-deserving of this title, the BEST of the BEST, as there are several other “worthy” lifters in the running. With the men I’m thinking of guys like Bob Hirsh, Chris Waterman, John McKean, John Monk, Ed Schock, Bill Spayd, and others. For the women, I’m thinking of Jacqueline Caron/Simonsen, Amorkor Ollennuking, Cara Collins, and others.

The National Record List contains 902 records covering 57 lifts (including single arm lifts) that have been contested in the National Championships.